Pioneer History by Richard C. Schmal

Lowell Bank Is Robbed

(from the May 25, 1999, Lowell Tribune, page 20)

For more than six decades, stories and tales have been told about the
robbery of the Lowell National Bank in the 1930's, with several versions
circulated. All the people in the bank at the time of the holdup were
members of pioneer families, while the bank officers involved were
pioneers in Lowell's banking industry.

Information for this column was taken from an original report in The
Lowell Tribune written by Editor Ragon, who interviewed the bank
personnel, people he know very well.

The excitement started early on a Tuesday morning, just a short time
after the bank opened for business. Suddenly, a strange man poked a gun
into the side of Cashier Peter A. Berg, who was already busy working one
of the books.

The robber told him that it was a holdup and to get down on the floor.
More robbers appeared, covered the other employees with their guns, and
ordered them to get down on the floor. Banker Harold Love hesitated to
get down, "and the robbers emphasized their order by shooting twice into
the floor between his legs." All employees then quickly complied.

No customers were in the bank at the time of the robbery, and with the
bankers quiet on the floor, the gunmen quickly scooped up the money from
the safe which had just been opened, grabbed the cash from the tellers'
counters, and stuffed all the loot into a handbag.

"The car driven by the robbers was a big Cadillac, and when it parked in
front of the bank (cars were parked at an angle to the curb) there was
only one man in the car, and he got out and left the motor running. No
one seems to know where the other three men came from, but they were
nearby and saw the car pull up and park," wrote Ragon.

Catherine Berg (Mrs. Malcolm Parry), daughter of cashier Berg, had
parked their car in front of the bank, as she was going to take her
father and Ida Hunt to Crown Point on business. The big Cadillac pulled
up next to her and she saw the guns, but kept very still and pretended
to read a newspaper and was not bothered by them.

As the robbers moved about the bank, they did not seem to be in a hurry,
but the job was completed in just a few minutes. Before they left,
retired druggist Davis C. "Doc" Driscoll passed in front of the bank on
crutches, met businessman Carl Gragg, and commenced to pass the time of
day with him.

The robber stationed at the doorway ordered Driscoll inside, and he
complied after having been told a second time.

For reasons unknown, Gragg was allowed to leave. He went to his nearby
office and telephoned the Grant Brothers store across the street from
the bank to sound the alarm. Plans had been made years before that
someone from the store would man a shotgun at a basement window,
available at the time, but it was too late to thwart the robbers. (That
hair-trigger shotgun is still a Grant family heirloom.)

The robbers left the bank and pulled their big car out of the diagonal
parking place just when car dealer John Miller came up behind them in
his car. The robbers evidently thought that he was trailing them and
fired two shots out of the open rear window, smashing the radiator on
Miller's car and leaving him very angry and confused.

George Heilig, who was the proprietor of a bakery-grocery a few doors
away, was standing in front of his store during all the excitement, and
was told to get back inside by the robbers, an order with which he
quickly complied. Dr. Neal Davis was getting ready to back his car out
from in front of his office across the street as the gang was leaving,
and shots were fired in his direction, but missed him.

Ida Hunt came up to the Berg car in front of the bank, and the "wonder
to many is why the bandits did not make Mrs. Hunt, Carl Gragg and Miss
Catherine Berg go into the bank when they ordered Doc Driscoll inside.

The big Cadillac headed east on Commercial Ave., and as it passed the
public square, all the robbers waved at Town Marshall Williams who was
busy working there, and who waved back at them. Arthur Williams did not
know that the bank had been robbed until later.

The robbers were said to have turned north off of Commercial Ave. onto
Burnham St., then to Indiana Ave., and down old North Ave. past the
Catholic Cemetery, and then disappeared into the countryside.

The robbers got away with about $5,000 in paper money, an amount covered
fully by insurance.

With all the stories and tales told through the years, the question that
often arose was, "Was it the John Dillinger gang?" Dillinger was rated
"Public Enemy No. 1" at that time, and many banks were being held up
during those Depression era years. He was blamed for so many robberies
in the Midwest, that everyone wondered how he could be in so many places
at the same time.

Dillinger was captured early in 1934 and lodged in the Lake County Jail
at Crown Point, but on Mar. 3, 1934, he made a desperate escape using a
wooden gun. He remained at large until he was ambushed at the Biograph
Theatre in Chicago, Ill., on July 23, 1934, by a large group of
policemen. He died of gunshot wounds. Was it Dillinger who held up the
Lowell Bank? No one is sure. The 1903 bank building still standing at
316 E. Commercial Ave., is now a nicely decorated antique and gift shop.
For a time the limestone front was hidden with a modern facade of
decorative metal, but now the 1903 limestone facade is back for all to
see, very close to the way it looked when built 96 years ago.